Fresh Starts

2016.  A brand new year.  A fresh start.  I know lots of us use the start of a new year to set goals.  Resolutions.  Changes we desire to make over the course of the new year.  Some of us actually write them down and post them somewhere as a reminder.  Some of us talk openly about the changes we want to make, sharing our goals with loved ones, perhaps as a way to be held accountable.  And some of us never speak them aloud or write them down.  But they’re still there in our minds, resolutions known only between the resolution-maker and her Maker.

Today is the thirteenth day of 2016.  Twelve days of the new year have already come and gone.  How about those goals you set?  Are you keeping up with them?  Are you surprising yourself with how disciplined you’ve been?  Has your success encouraged you to keep going?  Or are you looking at the calendar, realizing that in those first twelve days, not much has been done about the resolutions you made?  Is your lack of progress a discouragement?  Are you wishing now that you hadn’t voiced your resolutions out loud to begin with?  Are you already thinking about quitting because you haven’t really started the year as you had hoped?

If you find yourself more in that second category, I have good news for you.  2016 has more than one opportunity for a fresh start.  Sure, January 1st seems like a nice and neat time to begin anew.  But why is January 13th any different?  There are 354 days left in 2016!  That means 354 opportunities to start fresh!

If you resolved to read your Bible every day, but haven’t picked it up yet, guess what?  It still counts if you begin today!

If you resolved to work out more often, but haven’t added it into your schedule yet, guess what?  It’s still beneficial if you add in another workout today!

If you resolved to spend less time looking at your phone and more time with your family, guess what?  They’ll still love it if you put that phone down tonight!

I know that for some of us, 354 opportunities for a fresh start still isn’t enough because we’ve resolved to change behaviors that happen multiple times every day.  We’ve chosen to speak more kindly to our children.  To avoid frivolous spending.  To eat healthier.  To mean what we say, and say what we mean.  And when yet another day goes by and we failed at these goals again, for what feels like the millionth time, it’s important to know that just like we don’t have to wait for the next January 1st for a fresh start, we also don’t have to wait until the next morning.

8,496 hours

509,760 minutes

30,585,600 seconds

Any moment of any day can be your fresh start.  Why not right now?  How about this moment?  Decide now that you’ll begin again.  And if you fail, because sometimes we do, you have at least a few million seconds left in 2016 that are perfect times for a fresh start.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!”  (Isaiah 43:18-19)